Review of Apocalypse Now (1979) by Bill R — 25 Jul 2014

"Never get out of the boat, absolutely goddamn right".

Coppola embarked on his self proclaimed "idiodyssey" with the intention of adapting Conrads 'Heart of Darkness', a novelette about the hand-in-hand decay of civilisation and sanity as one man takes a journey down an alien river in a hostile jungle, and setting it in the nearest thing in recent history that America has to feverish insanity; the Vietnam War.

To those of you unfamiliar with the story behind 'Apocalypse Now', it is one of dread and madness, one frustration and isolation. Death and decay.

Francis Ford Coppola intended to depict madness in all it's rainbow spectrum. He, without a shadow of a doubt, succeeded.

Whether it be through events or characters, dialogue or the constant deep reds and oranges that illustrate the fever and psychosis of Western men, out of their depth.

To me, 'Apocalypse Now' is not a war-film, it's not an action-adveture nor horror or thriller. Hell, it's barely an adaptation of 'Heart of Darkness'.

Like Dante's 'Inferno', the audience can only sit and watch as they are taken on the back of a winding serpent through the seven circles of hell and heat, only to be left in the calm waters of inevitable madness.

If one believes the ethos that one should "suffer for their art" then that, in my humble opinion, makes 'Apocalypse Now' not only the greatest piece of cinema ever produced, but the finest, most honest work of art to grace any canvas.

"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right. Unless you were goin' all the way".